The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 25, 1994
Filed:
Aug. 21, 1992
Leonardus J Van Roozendaal, Eindhoven, NL;
Rene G Penning de Vries, Eindhoven, NL;
U.S. Philips Corporation, Tarrytown, NY (US);
Abstract
A semiconductor device (1) includes a circuit having at least one transistor Tr1 and first and second electrodes (30) and (32). A protection element (20) having a device region (21) forming a pn junction (23) within the semiconductor body (10) and covered by an electrode layer (21c) is connected via an electrode (27) to one (30) of the first and second electrodes for providing a conductive path between the first and second electrodes (30) and (32) when a voltage above a threshold voltage is applied to the first electrode (30). The electrode layer (21c) forms with at least part (21a) of the device region (21) a potential barrier (B) for causing the conductive path provided by the protection element (20) to pass from the electrode (27) to the pn junction (23) at least partly via the device region (21) of the protection element (20) thereby increasing the resistance of the path to the pn junction (23).